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"BP raised $1.8 billion on Monday to help pay for the cost of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico by selling assets in Venezuela and Vietnam to its own joint venture in Russia.
The transaction will leave half the assets’ equity on BP’s books but give the company an immediate flow of cash for the entire value of the sale. The agreement with TNK-BP, the joint venture, is the first major deal for BP’s new chief executive, Robert Dudley, an American who was appointed to run BP midway through the gulf disaster.
BP has said it will raise $30 billion to pay claims relating to the spill, which killed 11 workers and caused tens of billions of dollars in damages, and has been whittling away at its global portfolio to do so.
BP has raised more than $11 billion, including the sales announced Monday. That includes $7 billion from the sale of fields in the United States, Canada and Egypt to Apache, a midsize energy company, and $1.9 billion for the sale of assets in Colombia to Ecopetrol and Talisman Energy."
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/19/business/global/19oil.html?adxnnl=1&ref=us&adxnnlx=1287473059-QlDIUOdyvHfyI8/47Rhj7A